Postmemory, Survivance, and Justice in Louise Erdrich's Justice Trilogy

Abstract

Native Americans carry along historical traumas as a result of a turbulent history defined by relocation, cultural deracination, and racial extermination. Scholars argue that many of the contemporary challenges such as negative self-image, mental health issues, self-destructive behavior, high rates of suicide, domestic violence, and substance abuse, that trouble Native American communities today stem from these historical traumas. Louise Erdrich’s Justice Trilogy, comprised of The Plague of Doves (2008), The Round House (2012), and LaRose (2016), depicts the struggles of the Ojibwe that people these novels to obtain justice from the U.S. legal system for their traumatic experiences. Erdrich does not offer simple solutions to complex problems of justice and reparation in these novels. This thesis will analyze the trilogy, utilizing Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory which is the transmission of traumatic personal and collective memories that are spatially and temporarily distant to postmemory subjects who transmit these memories. Although postmemory has negative implications as it perpetuates traumas across generations, this study argues that it works as a catalyst for Evelina, Joe, and LaRose, the postmemory subjects of the selected novels, in achieving survivance, a term coined by Gerald Vizenor to emphasize Native American resilience and adhesion to Native American culture by continuing to cherish its practices despite settler colonists’ erasure efforts. Juxtaposing the experiences of her multiple characters, whose lives are shaped by the negative effects of historical trauma, with those of the postmemory subjects in her novels, who are dedicated to finding out about, understanding, and embracing their ancestral past, Erdrich’s Justice Trilogy demonstrates the role of postmemories in reshaping characters’ understanding of their identity, justice, and community.